Excluding items, the database giant earned 62 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 29, up 15% from the same period last year, and well above analysts' forecast of 56 cents a share.
Oracle reported its third-quarter results after market close.

Oracle, which posted disappointing second-quarter numbers in December, also brought in non-GAAP revenue of $9.06 billion, an increase of 3% on the prior year's quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for sales of $9.02 billion.

Investors responded positively to Oracle's numbers, pushing the company's stock up 95 cents, or 3.16%, to $31.05 in extended trading.

Oracle's new software license revenue, a key performance metric, was up 7% year-over-year to $2.37 billion.

"This past quarter Oracle delivered the hardware and software for our new extreme-performance Exalytics In-Memory Machine," said Larry Ellison, the Oracle CEO, in a statement. "At the core of Exalytics is our new in-memory database technology capable of instantaneous big data analysis; questions are answered at the speed of thought."

Oracle's board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 6 cents a share after market close on Tuesday.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

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